The Battle of the Bastards was a tour du force – gritty, gruelling and with a horribly satisfying conclusion involving Ramsay Bolton and some VERY hungry pooches. Here’s what we learned from the most epic Game of Thrones episode this season.

Ramsay is dead!

Game of Thrones has a fondness for off-screen deaths - often fuelling rumours that decreased characters are still amongst us. But there could be little doubt as to the fate of the truly, madly awful Ramsay - eaten alive by his own hungry hounds. This was an unspeakably cruel demise – and, we were invited to conclude, just as the sadistic Lord Bolton deserved.

Are Sansa and Jon not getting on?

We were all teary eyed when sister and brother (“half brother,” Lord Baelish would point out) reunited at Castle Black. But a chasm has opened between them, never more so than at Winterfell, with Jon advocating a charge to the death and Sansa urging caution. They’ve triumphed for now – but will these divisions grow wider?

Are we finally about to leave Meereen?

Oh Meereen - when will we say farewell to your spiky skyline? With Daenerys leading her dragons in battle against the Masters, it seems the Breaker of Chains is calling time on Essos and will soon be off to conquests new across the Narrow Sea. Frankly, that hour cannot come soon enough.

The battle was fantastic.

The Belfast hinterland never looked as bleak and epic as hundreds of extras ran around pretending to lop one another’s heads off in the greatly heralded Battle of the Bastards. This was bravura film-making, which would not have looked out of place on the big screen.

Why didn’t Sansa tell Jon about Littlefinger’s reinforcements?

It was shaping up to be a difficult day at the office for the Bastard of Winterfell. His men were being cut down all around and he found himself at the bottom of House Bolton’s vicious rolling maul. He had clearly given up hope - only for Lord Baelish’s dapper reinforcements to stomp over the hill. Hurrah for Littlefinger and all that - but why had Sansa not mentioned the thousands of heavily armed knights thundering to their rescue? It seemed an important detail

Sansa is the season’s true power player.

It was the Battle of Bastards but the true winner was Sansa. She demonstrated she is a better leader than Jon – smarter and less fatalistic – and took icy revenge against Ramsay. Who would tangle with her now?

Tyrion really needs to get back to Westeros.

So commanding during season two’s Battle of the Blackwater, as the fireballs rained down on Meereen, Tyrion was a hapless bystander. Perhaps this was by design - showing us that the great game of Essos was too complicated even for the cunning imp. Either way, with Daenerys now Westeros-bound it will be good to see Tyrion back where he belongs. ends